Mental health care thin at county jails

7:25 PM,
Dec. 26, 2012

An inmate in the La Crosse County men's jail, in 2006, has little to do but rest in his cell in a jail-issued uniform. Even the La Crosse County Jail, which an inspector described as 'a leader and model for other jails throughout the state and nation,' wasn't properly documenting actions relating to potentially suicidal inmates.

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For more than a decade, Milwaukee County's jail system has been under the scrutiny of a court-appointed medical monitor for its failure to provide adequate health care, including for inmates with mental illness.

In August, the monitor found mental health care in the county's two jails was still in shambles. Among the problems: Vacancies in top medical positions left jailers to make medical decisions, such as when an inmate should be removed from suicide watch. A man who had threatened to kill himself stopped eating and drinking for four days and was never taken to a hospital. He died in his ...